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Monday, August 16, 2010

Review: Strange Angels

Book: Strange Angels (Lili St. Crow)Stand-Alone or Series: Series, Strange Angels #1Pages: 293 Genre: Young AdultPreview on Google BooksDescription (From Goodreads):Dru Anderson has what her grandmother called “the touch.” (Comes in handy when you’re traveling from town to town with your dad, hunting ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional zombie.) Then her dad turns up dead—but still walking—and Dru knows she’s next. Even worse, she’s got two guys hungry for her affections, and they’re not about to let the fiercely independent Dru go it alone. Will Dru discover just how special she really is before coming face-to-fang with whatever—or whoever— is hunting her?

I have been seeing this series all over the place recently, so decided it was time to read Strange Angels. The story centers around Dru Anderson a hunter off all things evil. She travels around the country with her Dad - Winchester brothers style (If you are a fan of Supernatural you know what I am talking about). Well, in the first chapter or so, Dru's father is turned into a zombie and she is forced to kill him - leaving her completely alone. She quickly befriends a boy her age, Graves, who helps her throughout the book. Soon, they both realize that these creepy creatures are after Dru and they the two of them set out to find out why.

Overall, I enjoyed this introduction to the Strange Angels series. Like a lot of books, the first story featured a lot of story building. The author tried keep the pace quick, while also setting the stage for future events and came up a little short. Although the book's pacing keeps readers interested, it gets confusing at times, because things are not clearly written out. I had to re-read several passages throughout the book to make sure that I understood what was happening. Sometimes, I just would give up and hope the next few pages would clue me in more. Because of this, it took me a while to really become engaged into the story.

Also, I had a hard time warming up to Dru. I found myself getting irritated with her character quite a bit. She supposedly has been trained for this sort of life by her dad, but she seems to freeze up all the time. She never really does anything right, she chokes up under pressure. I like characters who make mistakes, but Dru is simply not self sufficient, and I really hoped she would be. She has to rely on others to drag her out of bad situations. She usually carries a gun and barks commands but she doesn't hardly ever follow through on anything.

However, I did eventually warm up to her and I really enjoyed the other characters in the book. Graves, in particular. He is a loyal character and has his very own coined phrase, "first one's free." I am excited to see where his story progresses. I also love Christophe. He is an extremely interesting character. I like how he is half-vampire (or a 16th vamp, whatever), so he's not your traditional character. This way the author has more of a free reign on him, since readers aren't as familiar with this particular brand of dark and mysterious.

All in all, I think this story has a lot of potential to grow and evolve. I am interested to see how the characters develop and to see if Dru comes into her own in the next book. I would love to see her powers grow and for her to become more self sufficient. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Betrayals.